


As Thin As Glass

by LuciferxDamien



Category: Rurouni Kenshin
Genre: Bittersweet, Canon Compliant, I always wonder what Saitou and Sano got up to in Kyoto, M/M, Missing Scene, Stolen Moments
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-24
Updated: 2019-03-24
Packaged: 2019-11-29 00:22:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18215678
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LuciferxDamien/pseuds/LuciferxDamien
Summary: A moment between Saitou and Sanosuke in the Kyoto police station.





	As Thin As Glass

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Shiritori Sonic, on the [writetomyheart LJ comm](https://writetomyheart.livejournal.com/). My first word was “window”.

The windows were glass in this place and Sanosuke still wasn’t used to that. So much had changed in so short of a time… What happened to just using paper that diffused the light nicely, or just opening the shouji to let in more light and air? 

But glass… It was cold and hard and harsh. 

Sano rested his head against it, sighing. 

“Don’t smudge the glass,” came a gruff voice, hissing at him. 

Speaking of cold and hard and harsh… 

Sano turned and stared at the rough man that had since returned to his paperwork, his maps, ignoring him. 

Saitou didn’t fit in here, not with the Western decor or Western architecture. And those Western clothes didn’t suit him, either. What would Saitou look like, wrapped in a kimono, his nihonto at his hip, like a proper man of the previous era? 

Maybe someday, Sanosuke would get to see for himself. 

A cigarette was perched between Saitou’s lips but Sanosuke thought that a kiseru would look much nicer; there was no time for such luxuries, not right now, not for Saitou. 

He sighed and pressed both palms flat against the glass, smooshing his face over the panes, just to piss Saitou off. It worked, when a sigh came and Sano turned around, smiling. 

There was no smile on the wolf’s face that would pull his lips back and bear his fangs. Saitou just looked tired. Worried. 

That scared Sanosuke. 

He didn’t know Saitou well, they’d barely met a few times, but he knew _of_ Saitou Hajime, Captain of the Third Shinsengumi unit. A man that survived the Bakumatsu, a Shinsengumi that saw too many battles, and lived through them all… 

And such a man was worried. 

There was redness and darkness around Saitou’s eyes, a cigarette hanging from his lips and Sano was fairly certain he wasn’t even smoking it, just keeping it dangling there for some sort of comfort and distraction. 

Sanosuke wanted to walk over to him and wrap his arms around that lithe body, to feel his warmth and let Saitou feel his own, just to let him know he wasn’t entirely alone, that it would be all right, but… 

But he hardly knew the man. And their first meeting had been… Unpleasant. Cut too short, Sanosuke felt. 

Sanosuke still wanted to offer Saitou some sort of comfort. A man that had watched his friends pass before him, forced to walk over the corpses of his comrades needed someone that would stay beside him and smile. Someone that could lift Saitou’s sourness. 

Maybe when it was all over, Sanosuke could be that person for Saitou. 

The sun was close to setting and a carriage was riding up to the police station. That wasn’t unusual, but Sanosuke felt his chest getting tight, and Saitou came over to stand behind him, warm, smelling of rich tobacco. There was a nervous energy between them, and Saitou was standing closer than he needed to; Sanosuke drew in a shaky breath, looking over his shoulder, looking at those golden eyes that were focused elsewhere. 

With a frown, Sano turned back to the window, the carriage stopped and… 

It was Kenshin! 

Sanosuke felt a rush of excitement through him, Saitou breathing out his smoke with a sigh. And then Sanosuke realized what Kenshin’s arrival signaled… 

The few short days he and Saitou had spent together were over and now… 

The battle was to begin.


End file.
